Satisfaction High Among Hip Replacement Patients

Nearly 90 percent report that expectations were completely or somewhat fulfilled in study

Modern Medicine—September 10, 2009

HealthDay News -- Four years after total hip arthroplasty, most patients report that their preoperative expectations were either completely or somewhat fulfilled, according to a study published in the Sept. 1 issue of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.

Carol A. Mancuso, MD, of Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, and colleagues studied 405 patients who completed the preoperative Hospital for Special Surgery Hip Replacement Expectations Survey and interviewed them about four years after surgery.

Overall, the researchers found that the mean proportion of fulfilled expectations was 87 percent, with 43 percent of patients reporting that all of their expectations were completely fulfilled and an additional 32 percent reporting that all of their expectations had been somewhat fulfilled. They also found that expectation fulfillment was associated with younger age, current employment, a body mass index of less than 35, no complications and the absence of a postoperative limp, and increased preoperative and postoperative Lower Limb Core scores.

"Our findings may be useful for counseling patients and for providing a framework for using fulfilled expectations as another patient-centered outcome of total hip arthroplasty," the authors conclude.